The spec's I find show the dry weight of a 2007 KLR650 at 337lbs. The 2011 shows a wet weight of 432lbs. Assuming fuel, oil, and water at about 40lbs, the newer models would weigh 50+lbs more. Is this correct???? Where is the weight gain?

Discrepancies exist in "official" Kawasaki KLR specifictions; for example, Kawasaki would have you believe Generation 2 ('08 and later) KLR's have SINGLE PISTON rear brake calipers, where I count TWO.

Just to neutralize any errors, you can take your bathroom scales to the garage, place front or rear wheel upon them, shimming the opposite wheel to approximately level orientation, and note weight. Repeat, reversing wheels. Add sums of weight, and . . . you come up pretty close to "ground truth" regarding your bike's weight, regardles of any published numbers.

Generation 2's, I think, are somewhat heavier; not as much as the spcification sheet might suggest, however.

The spec's I find show the dry weight of a 2007 KLR650 at 337lbs. The 2011 shows a wet weight of 432lbs. Assuming fuel, oil, and water at about 40lbs, the newer models would weigh 50+lbs more. Is this correct???? Where is the weight gain?

I read this somewhere, and it was recent. I'll try to find the cite, but it went something like this...

Prior to the model year 2008 almost all motorcycle manufacturers gave the weights of bikes less "expendables". In some cases that meant without tires, and in almost all cases it ment without oil and gas. The weights of motorcycles pre and post 2008 vary widely due to this.

Apparently, they've all sort of gotten their act together and now pretty much report weights "ready to go".

Like I said, I'll try and find the cite for this.

T

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“'Why' and 'How' are words so important they cannot be too often used.” -Napoleon Bonaparte

It's all that extra plastic to make the front cowling. Another way to get your real weight is to take it to a fertilizer distributer. Almost every single one around here has a drive on scale that is good to 5 or 10 pounds accurate. I think mine with the IMS tank full was around 440-450 lbs.

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*** KLR650, Tweeting long before your kids thought it was cool.

Thanks for the input. It's not really a big deal but just couldn't believe that there could be that much difference. I'll be riding my '07 for a while and bought it thinking it might be a little more dirt friendly than the gen2. So far it is a much better rider than I am but am having a blast getting aquainted. Have added bark busters, HT crash bars and skid plate so weight is up a little anyway. Just hoping that Santa knows how fun new farkles are! Still looking for good places to ride in Kentucky.

Crash bars and skid plates carry most of the extra weight low in the bike so it should not be a huge difference unless you are picking the bike up from it being on it's side. In which case you will be glad you have both fitted

A number of people have commented on the supposed 51-pound weight gain from 07 to 08 (as told to us by Kawasaki). I would argue the true weight increase was around 17 pounds. Kawasaki has an accurate weight posted for 08 and newer, but the 07 and earlier number was bogus as you'll find below.
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I found what appears to be an accurate weighing of a fully-fueled 2005 and 2008. Since they didn’t use the data to draw all the conclusions I was looking for, I wanted to take that information and provide some BOTTOM LINE numbers for the group. I’ll work this backwards: Answers first, then details if people want to read how it was calculated.

ANSWERS:

* The 2008 gained around 17 pounds from the earlier model.

*** DRY WEIGHT (no fuel, coolant, or oil):
*** 2008: measured 387 pounds. KHI says it’s 386. Essentially dead-on!
*** 2005: measured 370 pounds. KHI says it’s 337. We’ve all argued they’ve been off with that number for a while, what I’m implying today is that they’ve been quoting 33 pounds below actual for a number of years.

The 2008 was essentially weighed twice and indicated 428 pounds each time. This is where the “WET” weight quoted above originated. They also weighed a 2005 model twice, and obtained 409 pounds one time and 413 pounds the other. I’m using the average of those two values, or 411 quoted above in “WET”. The difference between 411 and 428 provides the 17 pound delta between model years.

The difference between "wet" and "dry" is simply 41 pounds. First, we know they really don’t hold 6.1 gallons of fuel, more like 5.7. Since gasoline weighs 6.2 to 6.3 pounds per gallon, that is essentially 35 pounds. Next; 2.5 quarts of oil and 40 ounces of coolant come out very close to 6 pounds. So if there is no fuel, coolant or oil, we lose another 41 pounds. These values are quoted in the “DRY” section above.

Hopefully this will provide some clarity on the subject.

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Watt-man

'04 KLR650, 90,000 Miles
'09 KLX250, 6,000 Miles
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